Let me clear my throat...
We got a baby, we got a baby, we got a baby, hey hey hey HEY!
Gavriel Zakai Fashbaugh made his appearance in the outside world at 3:51 am on Saturday, September 22, 2007. He weighed eight pounds, ten ounces, and was the smallest baby born on our floor that night. Yowzer!
I never got to go into labor naturally. Friday was filled with weirdness for me because my tongue felt kind of fuzzy when I woke up. Then as the day went on, my eye felt a little numb, then my lips started to feel like I’d been shot up with novocaine at the dentist’s office. I was trying not to focus on it, because I tend to fixate on things like that when they’re no big deal. However, when I looked at myself trying to smile in the mirror, I saw that the left side of my mouth wasn’t moving.
Uh, scary? Then I went to show Jonathan, and he noticed that my left eye wasn’t blinking either. Scarier. So we called my OB, who advised us to go straight to the ER, even though it just sounded like Bells Palsy.
Which was enough to make them induce! But all they had to do was break my water, which threw me into the roughest night of my life. With Caleb, the pitocin and water breakage was followed IMMEDIATELY with an epidural. Two contractions in, as a matter of fact. This time, I had two contractions within six minutes of the water being broken, and my nurse and doctor were off inducing some other lady. They hadn’t expected me to go into labor without the pitocin, so I was fourth on the anesthesiologist’s list. After two hours of the most excruciating pain of my life – accompanied by the kind of vomiting that made me LONG for the beginning days of my pregnancy – I finally got my epidural.
Of course, the doc administering it got a little shirty with me because I wasn’t holding still enough. To be fair, I was sitting at a wretched angle on the bed, and they just tried to work around it. I got punctured twice with that giant needle in my back, and it felt like a teeny little bite compared with the contractions I was dealing with.
His little face was turned sideways and he had some cord wrappage going on, which added to the drama of delivery, but it was still just remarkably smoother than Caleb’s birth. As soon as he was born, they put him on my tummy and I was able to grab him, hold him and smooch him all over. (With Caleb, my neck and shoulders were so sore from pushing that I literally didn’t SEE him until he was a couple hours old even though I was holding him.)
He has a LOT of hair. He’s a hairy kid. And his face was all kinds of bruised from having come down the pipe sideways, but he is just as gorgeous as can be. Jonathan cut the cord, and the two of us just praised God that this little man that we’ve been looking forward to meeting was with us at last.
The Bells Palsy has been the most ridiculous thing. I was totally fine from labor about an hour after delivery. After a shower, I was a new woman. But the vanity and pride that stem from having my face look like this took a lot out of me. Jonathan was even more of a perfect husband than usual – he kept reassuring me that he thinks it would be super if my face stayed like this because he thinks it’s super cute. Plus, on Sunday morning, he went out and bought me a new eyepatch and decorated it himself. Ohmigoodness, do I love that man!
Grandma and Grandpa Garmane took care of Caleb during this time, bringing him to the hospital once or twice a day to see us. If you haven’t seen the pictures, check out Gavi’s page to see his and Caleb’s first meeting. It was a beautiful thing to behold. Caleb is being really possessive with “Baby Gavi.” He actually threw a couple of hissy fits when he wasn’t allowed to hold him any longer. I know that the honeymoon period will end, but it’s nice to have the initial reaction be overwhelmingly positive.
We were released from the hospital on Monday morning. Gavi had developed jaundice, but the numbers weren’t enough to warrant keeping him at the hospital or sending him home with a bili-blanket. So even though he looked super yellow, we know it wasn’t as bad as it was with Caleb. Grandma and Grandpa brought Caleb to our house to have a reunion, then took him home with them again so that Jonathan, Gavi and I could have some adjustment time on our own.
The kid REALLY doesn’t like to sleep at night, really DOES like to eat, and gets cuter every day. We gave him his first bath yesterday, took our first walk tonight, and look forward to another dozen firsts in the next couple of days. God has been so gracious with us ~ two exquisite boys, both of whom we couldn’t imagine our lives without. We were so scared that it would be impossible to love anyone as much as we love Caleb, but we’ve found out that it isn’t that tough at all when the second somebody is Gavriel Zakai!
posted by Amanda @ 6:21 PM
Congratulations!!!!! You are so blessed with another sweetie. We know there's a lot you're going to have to get through with all the complications. Hang in there, we know you're in Good Hands. He'll give you the strength to get you through this difficult time.
We have you in our prayers and will continue to ask the Lord for healing, strength, and peace.
We love you guys!
The Matt Johnsons
Yay, yay, yay!! Welcome Gavi! Aww, he's so cute and 'manda you're beautiful! Stupid weird things that happen to you...remember when you went blind in high school and I brought m&ms to your house and made you guess the colors?
I'm so happy you are home and doing well. CALL MEEEE!!! (when you can of course...) Congratulations Fashbaughs! love you...wendy
Congrats to all of you and well done Amanda for getting through all that! You are really strong! Gavi looks beautiful and Caleb has really grown into a handsome little boy! Enjoy this next part of your lives! Love Jess
Congratulations!!! He looks so adorable, as does his big brother! I'll be prayng that he will learn to love to sleep at night. :)Love you guys!
This lady did some awesome video blogging about Bell's Palsy.
Amanda - Congrats!!! My punk sister didn't even tell me you had a new arrival.